


A Candlenights Celebration

by heartsflush



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Candlenights, Concerts, Fluff, Ice Skating, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-17 19:11:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13083501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartsflush/pseuds/heartsflush
Summary: Taking a break from cooking every single Candlenights, Taako and Kravitz have a lovely evening out.





	A Candlenights Celebration

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY CANDLENIGHTS EVERYONE!!!
> 
> this is a gift for my best friend, morgan. they're honestly an angel and i'm sorry i don't have more to give them <3
> 
> this fic features morgan's d&d character, lyra, as well as mine, dhulsaei!
> 
> i hope you enjoy <3

Taako woke up, which in and of itself was odd.

He could have sworn that the night before, he’d sat on his (gorgeous) futon to catch up on his meditation schedule. Yet here he was, in the bed he never used, with--

Oh. Duh.

Taako shook his head, his hair falling out of the loose braid he vaguely remembered putting it in the day before. Kravitz stirred gently beside him, beginning to awaken as well. As Taako stood up to stretch out his sleepy fatigue, the events of the previous night returned to his memory one by one.

Not even five minutes after he’d sat down to meditate for the evening, Lup had called him on his Stone of Farspeech (how he heard it from his trance, he didn’t know; probably some magic bullshit like everything around him). She very rushedly gave him a location where Kravitz was dealing with a necromancer who’d called in some undead friends. She hurriedly explained that she and Barry were tracking some liches and couldn’t help him, then hung up before Taako could point out the irony of that situation.

Taako had arrived at the scene, dressed and ready for action, to find that Lup’s estimated count of zombies was _slightly_ off. Whereas Taako expected, like, five, Kravitz was surrounded by at least fifty, with a very angry and scared necromancer commanding them from afar. With a flick of his wrist, Taako blinked into the fray next to his husband and joined the battle.

Needless to say, this fight was _fucking exhausting._ Every time Kravitz or Taako would eliminate a zombie, the terrified necromancer would summon two more in its place. It was like a hydra of decaying flesh and bad decisions. Taako blew nearly all of his spell slots on Fireballs, a move he assumed Lup would approve of.

When the fight was _finally_ over and the necromancer taken care of, Taako remembered being so tired that he nearly fell asleep on Kravitz’s shoulder. The last thing he remembered before falling completely asleep was Kravitz swinging his scythe and returning them both to Taako’s room.

Taako fiddled with the ring on his finger as Kravitz sat up in the bed behind him. “Let’s agree never to do something like that again, yeah?” the reaper said, stretching as Taako turned to look at him.

“Tell that to your fuckin coworker, babe,” Taako replied, sitting back down on the bed.

“Tell that to your sister,” Kravitz shot back, inching closer to Taako.

Taako rolled his eyes. “You, she might listen to. The last time she took my advice, we both ended up in a river with a sack full of five hundred plastic monkeys.”

Kravitz ran his fingers through Taako’s hair, his ring occasionally catching in it. “Sounds about right.”

They sat in silence for a few blissful moments, Taako enjoying the feeling of his husband’s skilled hands weaving their way through his hair. After a while, Kravitz moved his hands to Taako’s shoulders, leaning into him and whispering, “I just remembered what day it is.”

“What’s that, Skeletor?” Taako mused in reply, placing a hand on one of Kravitz’s.

“It’s Candlenights.”

Taako shot straight up, knocking Kravitz backwards onto the bed. _"Shit!"_ he exclaimed, rushing towards the dresser to find a hair tie. “I have to do so much baking, Krav, if Magnus doesn’t get his annual supply of macarons--”

“Shhhhhh,” Kravitz interrupted, standing up. “Lup called last night. She felt sorry for throwing you into our work, so she offered to take care of all the cooking for today.”

That was enough to stop Taako in his tracks. He turned around, an extremely doubtful expression gracing his features. “Bullshit.”

“I promise you it’s the truth, love,” Kravitz said.

“There’s gotta be a catch,” Taako replied. “Lulu doesn’t do shit for free. Ask Greg.”

Kravitz laughed. “You’re correct there, although it’s not as bad of a catch as you might think.”

 

Chaos Stadium was absolutely packed. It seemed like everyone from the city of Neverwinter was in the stands, and the noise was almost enough to make Taako crazy. He clutched his program in the hand that wasn’t in Kravitz’s as they sat down.

“I hope these assholes aren’t chattering during the performance, otherwise they’re gonna be in a world of hurt,” Taako stated, pulling his hat over his head.

“I’m sure they won’t,” Kravitz replied, giving his hand a squeeze. “This performer has some renown in these parts, so I would think they have at least some measure of audience etiquette.”

Lup had bought the couple tickets for an evening of music on the condition that they stayed the fuck out of the house until she was done baking. Not that Taako was complaining; he’d been a bit of a homebody for the past week and a half and needed some fresh air anyway. Besides, with Johann gone, he’d missed the constant presence of music in his life, and this was a nice way to remind himself that not all sound was cacophonous and overwhelming.

“Who are we seeing, again?” Taako asked, glancing at the now-crumpled program in his hand.

“A bard named Lyra,” Kravitz replied. “This is her holiday program, I’m told.”

Taako glanced at the cover of the program. A young woman with a puff-sleeved shirt and long, brown hair was depicted playing the violin, with the text ‘Lyra Presents: Tis the Season’ overlayed in fanciful cursive writing.

“Well, she’s no Johann, but I’ll take it,” Taako stated.

As he spoke, the lights of Chaos Stadium lowered, and the audience almost immediately fell silent. ‘ _T_ _hank fucking God,’_ Taako thought to himself.

Moments later, an orchestral swell burst through the speakers surrounding the stage. The sound of a choir singing “ding, dong” over and over again soon followed, but Taako only saw one person on the stage. Her lavender hair fluttered gently in the breeze, which confused Taako.

“Wait, how is there a breeze inside?” Taako whispered.

“Oh!” Kravitz exclaimed softly. “She’s a sylph; she’s manipulating the air in the stadium to make it sound like she’s multiple people.”

Taako nodded, mildly impressed. In a puff of smoke, the woman from the cover of the program appeared, playing a familiar melody on her violin. This elicited thunderous applause from the audience. Taako clenched Kravitz’s hand, then relaxed as the applause died down.

As the show progressed, Lyra played familiar Candlenights music, as well as holiday songs from regions Taako had never even heard of. Every now and again, the sylph would step in and provide backing vocals as well as cool wind effects. At the conclusion of her performance, the audience cheered violently, and she eventually came back out for an encore of “All I Want for Candlenights Is You” by Fantasy Mariah Carey.

“Alright, Krav, can we _please_ get out of here now?” Taako said through his teeth. The noise was really starting to get to him, and Kravitz could see that, placing a hand on his.

“Of course, love,” Kravitz replied in a lower voice. “We just have to wait until there’s slightly fewer people around so I can take out the scythe.”

Taako nodded. “I’m gonna check in with Thing Two to see if we’re clear to head back.”

As people slowly trickled out of the stands, Taako tuned his Stone of Farspeech to the right frequency. He waited for a few moments before the voice on the other end stuttered out a “Uh, hello?”

“Sup, Barold,” Taako answered. “Where’s Lulu?”

From somewhere in the room Barry was calling from, Taako heard Lup yell, “How many times have I _fucking_ told you not to--”

“Sorry about that,” Barry interjected. “She’s, uh, a little busy right now. And stressed. It’s a lot of things.”

“Totally get it,” Taako replied. “So I’m assuming that Kravitz has to put up with me for a bit longer, then?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Taako saw Kravitz roll his eyes and smile.

“Probably,” Barry replied. “Someone’ll call you back when you’re all clear.”

Taako nodded. “Cool. Tell Lup to remember the bouillon cube.”

_“Taako I swear to God if you mention that one more time--”_

“See ya,” Barry hurriedly exclaimed, hanging up.

Taako returned the stone to his bag and turned to Kravitz. “Hope you’ve got plans, cause we’re still forbidden to enter.”

“I have a few ideas,” Kravitz replied, a smile creeping onto his face.

 

“Kravitz.”

“Yes, love?”

“Why the fuck did you want to go ice skating when you _can’t fucking skate._ ”

The couple was standing along the edge of Neverwinter’s premier skating rink, Everwinter. It was relatively empty; only a few groups of people were there, and they weren’t making too much noise. Kravitz was currently gripping the edge of the rink tightly in one hand and Taako’s arm in the other.

“I thought you’d like it,” Kravitz said, straightening up. “Besides, I haven’t had much contact with you lately, and I wanted to be close to you.”

Taako blushed. “Is that just your way of saying you wanted to hold my hand the whole time?”

Kravitz’s cheeks flushed in return. “Perhaps.”

Taako rolled his eyes, helping Kravitz stand up straighter. “Dork.”

As they skated along the edge of the rink, Taako noticed Kravitz in an intense focus that he normally only saw when he was on a mission. He smiled and tapped Kravitz on the shoulder, drawing his attention. “You look like you’ve never been skating before.”

Kravitz laughed. “Not much time for it in the Raven Queen’s employ.”

“What about before that?” Taako persisted.

Kravitz shrugged. “I guess Lydia and Edward never considered it important enough.” He stumbled a bit, quickly regaining his balance, then added, “I probably died too soon to go anyway.”

Taako hummed in acknowledgement. “How are they doing, by the way?”

“Same as the others,” Kravitz answered. “Nobody really likes the Eternal Stockade. They’re a bit better now that they’ve seen me again, though.”

“They still melodramatic as fuck, though?”  
“Naturally.”

The pair was silent for a moment longer, simply skating along and enjoying each others’ presence. At some point, Taako realized they were the only ones left in the rink. The resulting serenity and peaceful isolation enveloped them like a thick fog settling in on a cold winter’s morning.

“I’m so glad I married you,” Taako said without thinking.

Kravitz chuckled. “I’m glad I married you too, Taako. You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met.”

Taako turned to face Kravitz and gripped his hand even tighter. “Aw, darling, I’m the most amazing person I’ve ever met, too.”

Kravitz laughed, then pulled Taako in closer and kissed him. They stayed like that for what seemed like a small eternity, letting the chill of the rink wrap around them. After a while, Kravitz pulled back from Taako’s lips and moved to his forehead, holding him close.

“Happy Candlenights, love.”


End file.
